Using Custom Views to Display Information

Outlook uses forms to display the data in individual items. To see groups of items within a folder, you use views. By default, every Outlook folder includes a selection of built-in views available to all folders containing that item type. If none of the ready-made views matches the way you work, create custom views to sort, filter, and group items as required.

Compared to previous versions, Outlook 2003 makes it significantly easier to create, customize, and use views. For starters, you no longer have to use menus to switch views; you can select any available view for the current folder by clicking an option button in the Navigation pane. The View menu includes a new Arrange By option; for folders based on Table views, such as those that contain e-mail messages or tasks, you can quickly choose from more than a dozen predefined arrangements that instantly sort and group the items in the current view—by date, size, or importance, for instance.